Propaganda in Turkish cinema after the transition to multi-party regime: The socio-realism movement

The aim of this thesis is that propaganda, one of the essential tools of political activities in the world political history; to reveal the emergence of the propaganda opportunity in Turkish cinema in parallel with the developments in Turkish politics after the transition to the multi-party regime by revealing its historical, formal and theoretical development together with the examples in the literature and to determine the equivalent of this result in the movies. Since 1945, when the efforts to transition to the multi-party regime in Turkish politics gained momentum, the dynamics on the political ground began to change rapidly, resulting in the Democrat Party's coming to power in the general elections of May 14, 1950, and the change of power in the country led to the emergence of new ideals and activities regarding the governance of the country. This new 'conservative contemplation', which occasionally contrasted with the ideals attempted to be built since the foundation of the Republic and managed to create its own segment between 1950 and 1960, suffered a cut with the military coup on May 27, 1960, but its counterpart in the society continued to exist. The new conflict situation that has been continuing throughout the country since this date has created the obligation of the parties to doctrine their truths on their behalf in every field, and artistic activities have become an important tool for those who have something to say. In this context, the thesis study will focus on the Socio-Realism Movement, which is considered as the first conscious and political movement in Turkish cinema, which is one of the effective tools of artistic activities after the 27 May 1960 Revolution, based on the determination of the conflict that emerged as a result of a process. At this point, the movement will be defined with its political aspects, which are reflections of the political conjuncture of the period, and then; movies of leading directors such as Halit Refiğ, Metin Erksan, Ertem Göreç and Duygu Sağıroğlu, which show intensity in terms of propaganda, will be subjected to qualitative content analysis. In the end, the results will be conveyed as the 'biased performance on the silver screen' of the events in Turkish politics between 1945 and 1971 on the one hand, and on the other hand, the aims of this execution will be evaluated as a propaganda element with their fascinated aspects. Keywords: Propaganda, Multi-Party Regime, Turkish Cinema, Socio-Realism Movement